Jolt
by Azure Butterfly
Summary: Transformation fic. Thousands of years ago, a curse was sealed away to protect the world. Now that curse has been released, and only a handful of trainers have the opportunity to seal it once more - but, when the time comes, will they want to?
1. Chapter 1

Because the world needs more fluff.

This'll have short chapters, but I'll update often. This is officially my top priority fic. :3

Pretty much every character in here that doesn't isn't from one of the games is an OC. So, yes. Steal my main OCs and you will pay for it.

This is mostly told in 3rd person limited, following Alena. Those familiar with my stories will already know that that means this story is lighter and funnier than most of the romance I have written (or at least tried to).

For those of you who didn't tldr; me, here, have a cookie. You must be really bored to read my random, rambling author's notes.

Ahem…

On with the fanfiction! ~

-~-

Once again, in the busy square in front of the Hoenn League's main headquarters, many aspiring master trainers had gathered in order to hone their skills. Some of them were planning on challenging the Elite Four soon; most of them were simply there for a quick fight against a worthy opponent. After all, once a trainer reached a certain skill level, there were only some many people in the world that were still willing to fight them.

Two notable figures stood out in the crowd today. The first stood at the very center of the square, a huge grin playing across his face as opponents from all over the globe lined up to battle him. His hair was a bright orange, while his eyes were a more muted sort of amber. His uncontrollably spiky hair was covered with a tight-fighting, navy blue cap in an attempt to tame it. It wasn't working very well. His bulky blue jacket, deep violet undershirt, and dark jeans served to make him look somewhat mysterious – not to mention intimidating. His hair flared out like a miniature fire around his neck.

His name was Tyler Burn, a trainer from the faraway Sinnoh region. At the age of sixteen, he had beaten the Champion of the Sinnoh region, earning himself the title of master trainer – or at least, Great level. The ranks of trainers were widely regarded as being in a roughly uniform pattern – rookie, ordinary trainer, Gym Leader, Elite Four, Great trainer, Hyper trainer, Master trainer. At each level, a commemorative badge would be given to the trainer, to be displayed as a sign of power. Unfortunately, it also served to drive away most challengers after a certain point, as one trainer had found out.

At the outskirts of the square, watching the flame-headed Tyler with mild interest, another trainer yawned sleepily. Her back was propped up against the bark of a nearby tree, and her hair hung down her back in dark brown waves. She wore a simple kind of tracksuit – lavender, as usual – which served to make her slim, lean figure even more noticeable. Her hair was held in place by an indigo headband, which clashed with the rust-colored frames of the glasses currently perched on her nose. Her name? Alena. Her full name was Alena Celestia, but call her that to her face and you'd quickly find out just why nobody else ever did.

As Tyler sent out his prized Pokémon – an enormous Tyranitar – Alena quickly discovered why the boy was held in such high esteem. In places where the Rock-type would normally be green, it was a dusky brown, and the diamond-shaped spot on its belly was a royal purple. "Shiny Pokémon," Alena muttered under her breath. "Haven't so much as _seen _one of these in real life before. And on top of that…"

"_How's it looking?" _a small, squeaky voice asked from her side. Alena glanced down just long enough to catch a glimpse of her Pikachu, Electrinz, before shifting her attention right back to the crowded square.

"He's going to battle someone soon. They're clearing room for him, see? But the problem is, I can't make out the challenger. Maybe no one wants to battle him. That would be a disappointment. I want to see this Tyranitar in action." As she spoke, Alena tapped the top of her rust-framed glasses, hitting miniscule buttons with the ease of someone who had obviously done this before.

"_That good, huh?" _

Alena grinned. "This thing is pure gold. The Scanner says that its IVs are good, and it seems to be EV trained as well…"

"_Um, English please?"_

"Its stats are off the charts. It's been specially trained to be a complete wrecking ball." Alena looked down at her petite partner, grinning from ear to ear.

"_You aren't seriously thinking about battling that thing, are you?!" _Electrinz exclaimed. _"It would make putty out of me, and even Twig would have difficulty against something that dangerous!"_ The mouse wore a look of horror on his furry face.

"Oh no. If I was going to battle that thing at all, it would be with one of the new recruits," Alena said, fingering two Net Balls around her waist. "They're the only ones that would stand a chance against something like this. But I don't particularly want to battle this one – I'm planning on waiting until it's weakened enough to the point where he'll use something else. I've heard his Houndoom uses a style remarkably similar to our own, and I'd love to see for myself. Actually," Alena began, standing up straight and pulling off her glasses, "I think I might just ask him." With that said, the girl opened up her backpack, dropped in the Scanner glasses, pulled out a normal pair of blue-framed ones, and set off for the center of the square, Electrinz hurling worried comments at her left and right. "Relax," she told him calmly. "He's only Great Rank – we've already got Hyper, don't we?"

Electrinz didn't look so sure as his trainer darted off towards the fiery-headed teen at the center of the square.


	2. Chapter 2

"A battle, huh?"

"No. We came here for a picnic. What do you expect? Of course we want a battle!" Without even waiting for Tyler's response, Alena grabbed one of the Net Balls off of her belt.

The older boy smirked. "Fine, shorty. Three Pokémon each, three rounds. Whoever knocks out an opponent wins a round." He sneered at her as if wondering what the fifteen-year-old could seriously do to him. Already Alena found herself planning a strategy, all based around which Pokémon he would release first. The boy failed to strike her as being truly skilled – he was cocky, rude, and most of all, dumb. He thought that his three years experience put him far above his opponent. As he was about to find out, that was far from the truth.

"Sy! It's your turn!" A Rhydon appeared in front of the girl, smiling gleefully. Her thick, clawed arms swung dangerously close to the watching trainers as the curious Pokémon took in her surroundings.

"Empoleon! It's your turn!" The Steel-type threw his wings over his head in an intimidating fashion, aiming a Hydro Pump in the air. Alena happily noted how powerful the Hydro Pump was. She had used the Scanner on this one before, and it specialized in the offensive stats – no special training for speed, whatsoever.

The same couldn't be said for Sy. She half-giggled, half-growled as she shot over to a nearby tree, Empoleon already trying to hit her with Hydro Pumps. It wasn't uncommon for experienced trainers to teach their Pokémon how to attack on their own. Unfortunately for Empoleon, Sy knew exactly what she was doing. Every Hydro Pump failed to hit the Rhydon as the Ground-type darted out of the way with speed uncharacteristic for her species. Finally deciding to end the battle, Sy sent an Earthquake tearing through the ground, flinging Empoleon into the side of a nearby building.

"EV trained?" Tyler growled, returning his Pokémon to his Ball.

"Attack and Speed," Alena smirked, withdrawing the Rhydon from the field with a smirk. She pocketed Sy's Net Ball, rummaging through her bag in preparation for whatever Tyler would send out next. As long as it wasn't –

"Tyranitar!"

Alena sighed. "Figures," she muttered. "Knew I should have waited a bit longer before asking him…" With nothing else to do, she grabbed the second Net Ball off of her belt and tossed it into the battlefield. This time, a Poliwhirl materialized in front of the girl, a shower of blue bubbles flying out from the center of the ball.

Tyranitar growled at this new arrival, sniffing the air as though wondering if the Water-type would make a tasty snack. He stopped when the tadpole Pokémon began to move her hands around spastically, as though she were having a seizure. Although Tyranitar didn't know it, the Poliwhirl was actually using sign language to compensate for her apparent lack of a mouth. "You are mind numbingly ugly," she signed. "I do not know how you look in a mirror and do not pass out from such a terrifying sight. For goodness sakes! You are brown. You look like a giant piece of poop."

"Waggy! Use Hypnosis!" Alena shouted, finally breaking the string of insults. The Water-type happily obeyed, the Tyranitar too distracted to turn away. While it was sleeping, Waggy danced around the field, using something that was a mixture of Belly Drum and break dancing. With her Attack raised to maximum, Waggy shot forward, surrounding herself in Waterfall like a little froggy bullet…

… only for Tyranitar to wake up and smack her out of the way with Stone Edge.

"Impressive setup," Tyler said with a smirk. "But, a little bit risky for such a tiny little Pokémon, don't you think?"

Alena didn't even acknowledge the boy as she cradled the injured Pokémon in her arms. "Waggy," she said gently, "Don't leave yourself open for an attack like that! Only attack when I say to, okay?" The Water-type nodded weakly, stumbling to her feet. Before Alena had a chance to recall her, she turned around and made a rude gesture at Tyler and his Tyranitar. There. They should at least know what _that _one meant.

One Pokémon left on each side. A fair battle, Alena supposed. But for this one…

"You send out first!" Tyler called over in a mocking tone. "I did last turn, so you have to now!"

Shrugging off his ridiculous rules, Alena looked over to Electrinz, who had been watching on the sideline for a few minutes. "Trinz? You wanna take this one?" The Pikachu looked uncertain, but darted over to the girl anyway. Tyler smirked as he sent out his final Pokémon.

"Crap," Alena muttered under her breath as a Houndoom appeared in front of the boy. "Never saw this one in action before…."

"Houndoom! Sunny Day!" Tyler ordered, not even waiting until Electrinz was in position. The sun's rays suddenly turned blindingly bright, causing most of the watching trainers to shout in surprise and cover their eyes. When they finally got used to the light, the first thing they saw was a Thunderbolt and Flamethrower colliding in midair. They wisely decided not to open them again after that.

"Hold in there! Quick Attack around it!" Alena shouted as Electrinz tried to throw off the aftermath of the attacks. He looked as though he were already about to collapse. Houndoom howled, an eerie sound that sent shivers down the combatants' spines and snapped Electrinz out of his shock. Houndoom fired off a series of Dark Pulses and Solar Beams at the Electric-type, only to hit the bare ground. It was almost a repeat of Sy's battle – only this time, the stakes were much higher. If Electrinz lost this one, Tyler would take the game. Alena had to admit that he was talented.

Houndoom gathered a ball of fire in the back of his throat, his eyes glowing an arcane sort of red. Alena forced herself to watch as Electrinz rocketed right into the attack, just like Waggy had…

And then he began to glow pink.

The spectators gasped as a pink aura surrounded the Pikachu, rapidly growing until a red sphere completely surrounded him. Houndoom released the Flamethrower, but Electrinz darted out of the way with renewed energy. Houndoom's look of surprise was wiped off of his face as a red bullet slammed into his side and sent him sliding across the cobblestones.

"Impossible!" Tyler screeched. "You cheated! That attack couldn't KO Houndoom! Not even a quarter damage!"

Alena silently stepped off the field, Electrinz following her. "Light Ball," she said softly. "That, and five years together."

As Tyler screamed insults at her, Alena hopped on Sander's back and shot off towards Lilycove.


	3. Chapter 3

"Houndoom, a little bit to the left. There." The Dark-type moved his glowing red eyes in order to illuminate a series of mysterious runes. They were carved into an ancient ruin on an island to the north of Ever Grande, and appeared to be even older than the famous Unown runes. The ruins looked as though they had once been some kind of temple – a roughly square-shaped building with a once ornate set of stairs on one side. Inside the temple, rubble littered the floor – the remnants of the roof – and the ancient runes covered the walls. At the very back of the temple, the largest rune of all covered an entire wall.

"_CURSE_," Tyler read. "Well then. Houndoom. You remember this place from the tales you heard from your pack?" The Pokémon nodded. "Good. She'll come looking for this right when it activates, won't she?" The Dark-type nodded again.

"Excellent."

-~-

"Found anything yet?"

"_Nope."_

"_Only rocks."_

"_Stick!"_

Alena sighed as her Pokémon called from their positions in the trees. Waggy was searching a pond, Sander was searching in the air, and Twig was up in the forest's canopy. The others were all looking around on the ground. Whishcast, the baby of the group, had given up the search entirely and was now playing with a stick. Sy had gotten her head stuck in a tree trunk, and Waggy was relaxing in the water. The Sceptile and Flygon returned from their searches empty-clawed, and Alena was seriously considering giving up the search when a new voice called out from a short distance away.

"_Alena!" _Electrinz called. _"I found it, but it's too high up!" _The girl squealed happily and rushed over towards the sound of his voice, the rest of her team tagging along at her heels. They all stopped dead in their tracks when they saw where Electrinz had run off to.

"_A… temple?"_ Sander asked.

"_I've never seen anything like this before…" _Twig murmured.

"Hey! Let's raid the place! There must be all kinds of treasure!" Waggy signed enthusiastically.

"_Treasure!" _Sy and Whishcast squealed enthusiastically.

Ignoring the shouts of her Pokémon, Alena dashed into the ruins. Electrinz looked over his shoulder, grinning from ear to ear. On a pedestal in front of him, a lonely pair of rust-colored glasses sat. _"Idiot's probably waiting to ambush us or something. What do you want to do?"_

"This," Alena said, grabbing the Scanner and putting it back in its rightful place on her head. With a few taps, the glasses showed their GPS positioning. Upon realizing just where they were, Alena sighed dejectedly. "Come on. We'll have to room in Ever Grande tonight. Thank goodness I remembered to put a tracking device on these…."

"_Something about this is fishy…" _Electrinz said uneasily.

Just then, the rest of the group ran into the room, attacks at the ready. "Hey!" Alena shouted, grabbing Twig's Leaf Blade. "What are you doing?!"

"_That rune!" _The Sceptile panted out. _"I remember it! Alena, it's some sort of curse!"_

"What?!" The teenager jumped around to face the wall, eyes wide. "You don't think that boy from before – Tyler – stole my Scanner and planted it here because he thought this curse was real, do you?"

For a few minutes, the entire team stood in silence, except for Waggy. She was plodding around the ruins trying to find treasure.

Then Alena's watch beeped.

"Midnight," she whispered. "We should leave…."

No sooner had the words left her lips than the walls around them began to glow with a harsh light. The team members all fell to the ground screaming, except for (once again) Waggy. She was signing something that was probably quite rude and therefore left untranslated.

"_I don't wanna be cursed!"_ Sander cried.

"_Mama!" _Whishcast squealed, grabbing onto Twig's leg in the confusion.

"_Not now! I still haven't finished off that box of Cheezits at home!" _Sy shouted despairingly.

"_Alena!" _Electrinz shouted, grabbing onto his trainer's leg. She didn't respond. The reason soon became apparent as the blinding light moved up from the floor into her body. As Electrinz shocked her in desperation, the ruins began to send waves of light every which way.

Ten miles away in his hotel room in Ever Grande, Tyler realized the gravity of his scheme as the entire city was hit by glowing shockwaves. The boy fell to the ground, gasping weakly as the light crept into his body until he finally collapsed from exhaustion.

-~-

"_Urgh…."_ Electrinz blearily opened his eyes, his ears twitching weakly. He noted the darkness around him – good, the terrible light had stopped – and the cracked stone beneath his paws. They were still in the ruins. In front of him, dark lumps marked the position of the others, most likely unconscious. And Alena… Alena! Electrinz forced himself to his feet, desperately trying to find his trainer. He picked up her scent and realized that she had went outside – and by the smell of it, she had struggled quite a bit. The Pikachu jumped over piles of rubble and fallen branches, finding the ruin's entrance by chance when the ground opened up beneath him. Shaking off the pain, he scanned the forest for any sign of his trainer.

He did not have to look very hard.

She was laying in the center of a moonlit clearing, shuddering as though she was being doused in freezing-cold water. As he got closer to her, Electrinz realized that the light wasn't moonlight at all – Alena was still glowing in the same light from before. She was cold to the touch, and her eyes were tightly squeezed shut.

"_Alena!" _Electrinz screamed. Her eyes flickered open for just a second.

Then the light intensified, and she began to shrink. As Electrinz watched, unable to do a thing, his trainer slowly changed shape in front of him. Every so often, she would give a weak whimper, but she remained, for the most part, silent.

When the light faded, Electrinz found himself wondering if it had somehow blinded him. The truth was that he didn't want to accept what had just happened to his trainer.

But when the fluffy yellow creature in front of him opened her eyes and weakly coughed out, _"Trinz?" _he fell to the ground in a dead faint.


	4. Chapter 4

The first thing that Alena noticed was that the light had gone away. Good. She couldn't see at all before. The second thing that she became aware of was the fact that the horrible pain had gone away. That too, was good. The third thing was that the world around her, although dark, still appeared to be quite a bit larger than usual. That was not good. Another thing that was not good was the fact that her entire body felt strange. Her fingers felt strange, as did her toes. Her arms and legs stuck out at a strange angle, and her head felt as though it were in the wrong place. Alena groaned and tried to put a hand to her head, only for something to pull her back. Some kind of fabric.

It was then that Alena realized that her clothes were no longer on her body. Her arms and legs did not have the familiar sensation of having something on them, but something brushed against her back, and her Scanner and headband still appeared to be on her head. For the first time, the girl realized that her heart was beating at a pace so rapid, she thought she was having a heart attack or something. Feeling quite sick, Alena put her head down on the ground and fell asleep.

The next time she woke up, she could hear voices around her. They sounded familiar, but something about them was different. They were very loud. On top of the voices, the sound of something buzzing faintly echoed all around her. Alena noted that her ears were strange too – she could have sworn that her headband had been on top of them before, but now they now seemed to have moved so that it stood beneath them.

The final straw was when she felt… _something…_ brush up against something soft. Whatever it was, she was sure it hadn't been there before.

"Pika?"

The moment the sound left her mouth, Alena knew that something was seriously wrong. She had tried to say, 'Hello?' but the only thing that came out was the same sort of squeak that Electrinz made.

Alena opened her eyes and struggled to her feet. It was easier said than done, as she appeared to be on something rather some and cushy that was hard to move on. She realized that she was in her room in their Secret Base near Lilycove – the wooden walls and shelves lined with collectables gave it away. But the room was enormous – easily the size of a gymnasium, when it had been tiny before. Alena suddenly lost her balance on the huge bed and fell flat on her face. When she pushed herself up again, she caught site of a pair of furry yellow paws.

She waved her right hand. The paw on the right moved.

Her already quick heart rate picked up to an almost steady hum as she realized what had happened to her.

Alena jumped off the bed with some difficulty, landing gently on a pillow that had fallen to the ground. She forced herself to keep walking to the side of the room where a mirror was waiting…

And confirmed that she was, in fact, a Pikachu.

"_Electrinz!" _she screamed, grabbing her oversized ears in horror. _"Twig! Sy! Whiscash! Waggy! Sander!" _

There was a sound like a mini-stampede of Tauros, and the rest of her team poured into the room. Alena curled up into a ball as all of her Pokémon – now huge – hugged her as though she had been missing for a month. As soon as they realized that they were squishing her, her Pokémon let her go – well, besides Electrinz. He refused to let her go, squeezing her in a giant bear hug.

"_Alena," _he sobbed, _"I thought you were gone! I thought you would forget about me and hate me and then-"_

The other Pokémon began to pull the two apart.

"_Come on, Trinz! She's probably terrified!" _Twig scolded. Electrinz glared at him.

"_Mommy!" _Whishcash waddled over to Alena, playfully biting her tail. Alena, not used to having such an appendage, gave a little shriek and did a sort of backflip. Whishcash was most confused when her mommy landed on top of her.

"_All right! Everyone out!" _Twig ordered. The others shuffled out dejectedly, but Electrinz refused to leave Alena's side. _"Go on!" _Twig said, annoyed.

"_It's okay!" _Alena hurried to say, noticing Electrinz curling his paws into fists. _"Can we just stay together for a while?" _Twig nodded and hurried to get out of the room. _"I think he might have gotten the wrong idea,"_ the former human thought aloud, blushing furiously underneath her fur.

Electrinz didn't seem to hear her, as he was busy pulling something out from underneath her bed. Alena realized that it was her backpack, with her clothes wrapped up in a separate bag next to it. Her partner pulled the Scanner out of her backpack, followed by her Pokédex, a Pokéblock case, and a few TMs. Before Alena could realize what he was doing, Electrinz put on the Scanner and began to, well, scan her.

"_Lv. 15, female. Hardy nature, high IVs in Attack and Speed. Moves: Fake Out, Thunderwave, Volt Tackle, Tail Whip. Alena! Your moves are really good!"_ Before she could say anything in response, Electrinz had pulled out two TMs and was inserting them into the Pokédex. It beeped once, and Alena felt something wash over her, like a wave splashing her at the beach.

"_What was that?" _she finally managed to ask.

"_Brick Break and Dig. You should have those two, Fake Out, and Volt Tackle. Let's see… here!" _Electrinz pulled something round, yellow, and rather bright out of the bag. _"Another Light Ball. This should help."_ He fit the orb into a metal clasp and hung it around Alena's neck like a necklace.

Hoping that Electrinz wasn't going to make her EV train for the rest of the day, Alena started to edge out of the room. She had nearly escaped, too, when Electrinz shook out an enormous pile of Pokéblock onto the floor.

"… _well, no point in leaving early," _Alena remarked as she began to chow down on the huge pile of candies.


	5. Chapter 5

There was one small fact that Alena had overlooked before she had began to chow down. She was now tiny. Thus, her stomach was now tiny, and what would have seemed like a trivial amount of food at one point was now more of a feast. After downing eight Pokéblock (most of them pink or red), ten Carbos, and ten Protein, Alena thought she would burst.

"_Come on, just a little bit more_," Electrinz encouraged, offering her another pink candy. She slapped it out of his paw.

"_You just want me to look cuter_," she grumbled, her voice muffled by the pillow which she had currently buried her face in.

"_Well… maybe," _he admitted, provoking a few more growls_. "But really, I don't think you need any help. You're already pretty adorable…."_

Alena blushed. "_S-suck up_!" she accused, trying to roll off the pillow to glare at him but only managing to flop around a bit. Electrinz chuckled, rolling her onto her back in such a way as to make her look at him. They were so close, their noses were almost talking. Before Alena could protest, Electrinz had licked her face with a tiny pink tongue. Then, looking horrifically embarrassed, ran out of the room.

_That was strange, _Alena thought to herself. The place where he had licked her felt odd, sort of tingly and nice. _Well… urm… I guess I could go find him… but I don't know how I'd get off of here… ow!" _At this last thought, she rolled off of the pillow, her back slamming against the rather hard floor. Trying not to puke, she struggled to her feet and tried to walk out of the room – only to trip over her own feet. With quite a bit of annoyment, she clambered onto all fours and attempted, once more, to get out of her bedroom.

Unfortunately, Electrinz chose to run into the room at that very second, crashing into his trainer before he could stop himself. He shrieked as the two of them flew across the room, landing on the pillow that Alena had been trying to escape from minutes before.

"_Never try to make me eat that much ever again," _Alena threatened after a few minutes of just laying there.

"_Uh-huh," _Electrinz agreed weakly.

After twenty minutes of the two of them sitting in pain, both of the Electric-types seemed to recover their strength. Alena no longer felt like she was going to explode, although her head still hurt from where she and Electrinz had run into each other. The two of them slid off the pillow and awkwardly made their way into the TV room.

"_Hey!" _Twig shouted, jumping up from his seat and rushing over to the two embarrassed mice. "_What have you two been doing?" _A horrified look crossed his reptilian features.

"_Pervert!" _Alena shouted, smacking the Sceptile's foot (which was the only part of him she could reach). The two Pikachu darted away from the Sceptile, both of them blushing furiously.

"_Never mention… urm, _that_… to anyone?" _Electrinz asked as soon as they were a good distance away.

It took a second for Alena to realize what he was talking about, but when she remembered the reason Electrinz had run out of the room in the first place, she nodded furiously. _"Yeah, let's pretend that never happened."_

By this point, Twig had left the room, probably confused out of his mind, and the enormous thundering sound meant that the other Pokémon were probably heading to the room. Well, at least Sy was. She made enough noise for twenty of the others. Sure enough, Sy, Whishcast, Sander, and Waggy all piled into the relatively small room, all squealing something about flowers and chocolates and cheese. Well, Waggy was signing something about paper airplanes, but that was only to be expected from her. Alena thought about bailing out the window, but that plan was ruined by two facts. The first was that the ground was forty feet away. The second was that Sander had scooped both her and Electrinz into an enormous bear hug and was squeeing unstoppably. Whishcast and Sy joined in, and Waggy began to sign something along the lines of "E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-E-jah, this is boring. I'm going to blow something up." The Poliwhirl left the room in search of explosives.

"_Electrinz?" _Alena whispered, hoping that her partner could hear her over the squeeing.

"_Yeah?" _

"_Hold on."_

One second, Sander was happily cuddling the pair of Pikachu. The next, a huge ball of electricity rocketed out of her grip and shot into a nearby lamp. _"Hey!" _the Flygon shouted, _"No fair!"_

"_Volt Tackle, n00bs!" _Alena screamed, briefly appearing on the TV screen before shooting away.

Sander shouted a garbled mess of something that appeared to be the sound of a million squees all suffering a painful demise. Sy and Whishcast giggled cluelessly. _"Mommy go zoom!" _Whishcast said, happily clapping her hands.


	6. Chapter 6

A few miles away from the city of Ever Grande, on a cliff overlooking the Pokémon League headquarters, a transformer sparked with a strange glow. The glow intensified, finally erupting from the machine in a huge ball of energy when it had become near blinding. The ball of light continued its decent to the ground, where it began to fade and shift into a material form. Within seconds, the ball of energy had reformed into a pair of Pikachu.

"_Urk…"_ Electrinz groaned. _"Never again…."_

"_Suck it up!" _Alena ordered him. _"That was _awesome. _I'd heard of certain Electric-type moves having weird properties, but I'd never seen a Pikachu with Volt Tackle before so I never got to try that out!"_

Electrinz didn't respond. He had tottered over to a nearby bush and appeared to be emptying his stomach of today's breakfast. Alena shrugged. Served him right, feeding her so much crap. Her stomach was far full than his was and the spinning hadn't bothered her at all.

"_We're at Ever Grande," _Alena informed Electrinz, stating the obvious. _"It looks abandoned, for some strange reason – well, not entirely." _She pointed out a few Pokémon wandering the streets. _"There are still Pokémon here, but I don't see their trainers."_

Electrinz frowned for a minute. _"Something's not right," _he muttered, surveying the scene more carefully. _"Look closer. Most of the Pokémon are in groups – two Absol, two Houndoom, two Azumarill. Trainers never carry two Pokémon of the same species unless the two are a couple and refuse to be separated. But even then, most of the time, those Pokémon are left behind and aren't kept on the trainer's main team."_

Alena's eyes widened. _"Two of each? Oh! They are! Electrinz! You don't think-"_

His eyes affixed to the movement below, Electrinz nodded. _"The curse hit here too. The second Pokémon is actually a human… or was. If that's the case… then who knows how far the curse hit? It could have covered the world by now."_

Alena winced as she thought about the repercussions of a worldwide curse. Everyone had a job to do. If they were transformed into Pokémon, then there was no way for some of them to do that job. They would be too weak, too strong, too big, too small, or just not adapted to using the human tools. Without these people to do their jobs, the entire world could fall into disrepair. Power plants couldn't run without the help of both Pokémon and humans. Pokémon supplied the power, but humans made sure that the Pokémon were healthy, well fed, and able to do their job. The Pokémon, with their lack of thumbs, would have a difficult time opening the bags of food they needed. The humans, even if they were to help supply more power, would require even more food.

Then there was the issue of intelligence. Alena knew that her Pokémon were an… interesting case. She had witnessed first-hand something that Professor Oak had once researched at his lab in Kanto. Pokémon in the wild were intelligent enough. They could get food, shelter, and a mate easily enough. They could fight on their own – many of them lived in organized packs that often had sparring matches to build the strength of all of the pack members. However, wild Pokémon were not even close to the intelligence of humans. Some of them, such as Alakazam and Metagross, were well known for their high IQ – but they still did not think in the same was as people. They were logical thinkers, looking at the mathematical side of things. They simply didn't comprehend emotions at the same level as people.

But there was an interesting phenomenon that had been discovered by experienced trainers. From the moment a Pokémon was caught in a Poké Ball, it seemed to bond with its trainer. The Pokémon grew more intelligent, even if it were kept inside its ball most of the time It could somehow connect with its trainer and understand what its human partner was feeling from inside the storage container. Even monsters that had been sleeping seemed to tell instinctively when their trainer was frightened or angry, and would rush to defend them. They could feel the energies of a human and seemed to take on the tones of that energy as time went by. After many years together, the Pokémon would begin to act in an almost humanlike way.

As Alena watched Electrinz scan the city below, his face furrowed up in concentration – a very humanlike expression – she realized just how much trouble the world could be in right now.

The balance between monster and human had been broken. Without the presence of the other, would the monsters revert back to their wild state, bringing their old trainers with them? It was a terrifying thought.

But at the same time…

Alena supposed a little bit of time spent having fun wasn't too bad.

"_Let's go find someone to battle!" _she announced suddenly. _"If there are a bunch of people turned into Pokémon, then they'd be great practice for me! I can't run around completely un-EV'd like you are. I need all the help I can get because I'm not a natural-"_

Before she could get in another word, Electrinz had forced something around her neck. _"Exactly,"_ he simply said, pointing to a nearby stream. _"You need to be properly trained." _The Pikachu pulled out a sketchpad and began to jot some things down with a tiny pencil that just barely fit in his paw.

"_What are you talking about?" _Alena asked. Electrinz didn't even bother answering, as Alena's next training exercise revealed itself.

From the stream, a huge pod of Magikarp had just surfaced.

"… _EV training. Yay."_


	7. Chapter 7

Computer problems. 0~0

-~-

"_Electrinz!" _Alena screeched, smacking another Magikarp away with her tail. _"How much longer?! I've been at this for at least two hours!" _By this point, tears were streaming down her face. The cheerfully oblivious Magikarp just kept coming, swarming Alena to the point that she thought she would be a pancake if any more of them tried to pile up on top of her.

"_You're doing well!" _Electrinz called from a nearby stump. He was busily marking the sketchpad with a variety of tally marks. Well, at least the top part. The bottom part, on the other hand, was a long list of cheeses. Electrinz had a weird thing for cheese. _"You've been going for about twenty minutes. Five more should do it!" _he proclaimed, glancing down at a stopwatch hanging around his neck. Taking the time to scratch down three more tallies and the name of some rare goat cheese, the Pikachu seemed oblivious to his trainer's woes.

"_I am going to EV-train _you_ when I'm back to normal!" _Alena screamed at her Pokémon. _"You never had to go through this, you lazy bum! You have no idea of how hard this is! I think my tail is going to fall off!"_

"_You can't EV-train me," _Electrinz reminded her. _"They don't go through if you're at maximum level."_

"_I will shove the berries down your throat and watch you choke on them!" _Alena screamed, finally having enough of smacking the Magikarp away fairly. She stuck her tail in the water and gave the poor Water-types a shock that would have been powerful enough to take the average person down.

"_Hey!" _Electrinz chirped cheerfully. _"That takes you up to Lv. 27! Now that the speed portion is complete, we'll just have to wait until nightfall when the Gastly come out into the woods!" _Alena walked over to his stump, noticeably tired. He started to giggle at how ragged she looked, but the laugh cut off abruptly as she fell to the ground in a dead faint in front of him.

With a terrified gasp, Electrinz lept down and gently prodded Alena's side. _"H-hey. Wake up, Alena."_

Slowly, she groaned and rolled herself onto her side. _"I think… that was Struggle." _With a weak cough, she went limp on the ground._ "You're carrying me," _she told him in a quieter voice than usual.

To her surprise, Electrinz didn't even protest. Then again, she reminded herself, he wouldn't normally be able to carry her. He probably just wanted an excuse to show her how strong he was. Men. All the same.

Within minutes, Electrinz had created some sort of sled out of leaves and twigs. Rolling Alena onto the contraption, he made sure that she wasn't too hurt to last the trip without medicine. After a quick check of the trail ahead, Electrinz took a loop of grass in his mouth and set off for Ever Grande City at the fastest pace he could manage without Alena falling off the sled.

The trip to the city was far different than what the Electric-type had recalled from training there. For one thing, there were no trainers walking down the road – well, that was to be expected. Without the loud, plodding footsteps of humans, the path seemed eerily quiet. There was something else in the air – a smell. Something like… an electrical fire, only colder. As they traversed the long, winding path down the cliff face to the city below, Alena suddenly spoke up.

"_That smell… it seems strangely familiar."_

"_It's some kind of fire, that's for sure," _Electrinz informed her.

"_I thought so," _she cut in. _"But it's weird. It's not hot like fire – it's cold. Also, it's wispier than fire should be."_

Electrinz stopped his trot and turned around to face his trainer with a bemused look on his face. _"How do you know how to smell if an object is hot or cold? Or if it's hard or soft?! Humans shouldn't know the difference! You may look and attack like a Pikachu, but your personality is still the same. Your mind couldn't have been changed!"_

Alena frowned. _"If that was the case, then the other humans wouldn't be able to understand their Pokémon, but they were talking to them just fine the last we saw. On top of that, I can sort of feel what my senses are telling me – which is probably only natural. If my brain was completely the same, it might not understand the signals at all. I'd just be floating in a void…" _She shuddered at the thought. "_How much longer? My back is starting to really hurt."_

"_Ten more minutes, give or take,"_Electrinz responded. He picked up the rope again and began to pull his partner down the street. The duo received a few odd looks from other pairs – a group of Ponyta crossed to the other side of the street, snorting in a confused way – but for the most part, they were ignored. It seemed as though the others in town had some problems of their own. A Snorlax had gotten himself wedged in between two pine trees, as a huge group of Pokémon tried to push him out. In a nearby park, a Flareon was adjusting to the weaknesses of the species. He would jump into the pond, only to yelp and jump back out. As his partner laughed at him, he would shake himself off and prepare to try the feat again, determined not to let type-advantages get in the way of his love of swimming. On a similar note, a Taillow at the other side of the park was trying, unsuccessfully, to get his partner to fly. Every time the cursed human would get close to the edge, he would cling to the branch with his talons and refuse to let go.

Stifling laughter, the Electric-type duo finally made it to the doors of the Pokémon center. After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get the automatic door to open – which, of course, ended in failure due to their grand total of thirty pounds – a pack of Houndoom left the building, allowing the two to get in.

At first, Alena thought that they must have walked into the wrong building. Surely, someone must have mixed up the labels for "Pokémon Center" and "Zoo." At least two hundred monsters were all crowded into the one tiny room, all of them shouting and running around the building as if they had down four cans of Red Bull.

Then it hit her.

"_This is where all of the trainers who are confused out of their minds are going, isn't it?_

"_It's the apocalypse!" _a nearby Croconaw sobbed, running straight into a wall.

"_I really don't need to answer, do I?" _Electrinz stated.


	8. Chapter 8

My new computer just came in! My old one was running extremely slow, so this should probably help me improve my updating as soon as I get used to all the new things on it. Word 2007 is weird… O_o

-~-

For about twenty minutes, Alena and Electrinz waded through the crowd of confused Pokémon. Most of them seemed to have gotten over the initial shock, but a few were still running around screaming various things about the end of the world as we knew it, evil plots by supervillain Flaffy, and game developers with terrible senses of humor. The ones that had calmed down appeared to be in denial. A few of them, like a nearby Monferno, were slapping themselves in the face in an attempt to wake up.

"_Alena!" _Electrinz gasped, pushing a hysterical Pidgey out of the way. _"We can't stay here! We'll by crushed by crazies!" _The second after his saying so, Alena was hit in the face by the crazed Croconaw's Water Gun.

"_I can see where you're coming from," _the annoyed girl told him, _"but I need to restore my Power Points if we're going to get anywhere any time soon._" Admitting defeat, Electrinz allowed her to fight the last three feet to the counter without protesting.

Behind the counter, a rather bedraggled Chansey was juggling a set of vials, each with a different colored fluid in it. _"All right! You, the Pidgey, drink this! You two take this; it should help with your stomachache. Where did those Houndoom go…?"_

"_Um, Nurse Joy?" _Alena asked the Chansey cautiously. _"Do you have any Max Elixirs left?" _The Chansey glanced over at the girl for just a second before tossing her one of the vials. Without another word, she hurried off to the other end of the building.

"_Bunch of pansies," _Electrinz growled, nursing a bruise on his head. _"Honestly, Nurse Joy hasn't stopped working at all, but they're running around like lunatics."_

Alena took a swig of the green fluid before answering. It tasted surprisingly bitter – a taste that seemed stronger than when she had been a human. It wasn't a very pleasant taste either. _"Yeah… come on; let's make sure no one's trying to burn down the city or something. I wouldn't be surprised if a crazy Fire-type was trying something." _

Electrinz chuckled a bit, but stopped when he noticed the disgusted look on Alena's face. _"Hey, Al, are you okay? You aren't sick, are you?"_

"_No, that just tasted like crap. Got anything to get rid of the taste? Thanks." _Alena sighed in relief as she downed a few Pecha Berries. _"I think it has something to do with my Nature…"_

"_Couldn't be. Hardy Nature doesn't usually affect your taste at all. More likely, your human sense of taste was just really numb. In fact, I'm surprised at how alert you seem now. Humans must have _really _terrible senses!"_ Alena glared at him, causing him to throw up his paws in defense. _"Nothing against you! You're perfect no matter what you look like!" _He punctuated this comment with a huge hug.

Alena blushed underneath her fur._ "Erm… maybe we should train a little bit more?" _

Electrinz reluctantly let go. _"Same old Alena," _he said, smiling. As the girl darted off towards a nearby park, a plan began to formulate itself in his head…

-~-

"_Ow!" _Alena growled as another Ping-Pong ball smacked her in the face. For the past twenty minutes, she had been trying (unsuccessfully) to bat away the small white projectiles using only her tail. At first, she had insisted upon using her paws to help her. After about five minutes, during which her paws proved to be more of a burden than an actual help, Electrinz had made her stop. The training resumed with the Electric-type's paws tied behind her back with the help of a strip of fabric. She was finally beginning to catch on, but every so often, her tail would refuse to listen to her.

"_Ow!"_

"_No! You're supposed to hit the ball! Don't smack yourself in the face!"_

"_OW!"_

Electrinz sighed as Alena swiped at one of the balls, missed it, spun around from the force of the attack, and fell to the ground with a rather painful-looking smack. _"Let's call it a day," _he told her as gently as he possibly could. Admitting defeat, Alena ducked out from the fire of Ping-Pong balls, leaving the training to a few other Pokémon. A hysterical Rattata snapped at the balls, while a Psyduck stared vacantly into the distance as he was pelted by them.

"_Wait here," _Electrinz told Alena, darting off towards a row of shops without warning. Alena was left standing alone by a short, fat, green bush. Figuring that Electrinz probably had to use the restroom or something, Alena crawled under the bush, stamped down the ground, and fell asleep.

-~-

"_This can't be happening!" _

The terrified Aggron paced from one end of the room to the other, pausing every so often to give a terrified gaze towards his computer. The keys were now at least ten times to small for his enormous claws to handle. On top of that, all of the unfinished projects that had piled up around his room now appeared to be at least seven times smaller than when he had last seen them. Namely, when he was still a human.

"_Alletto!" _the second Aggron in the room shouted at him. _"Stop pacing like that! You need to get into the Ball, or else you'll never get out of the room!" _She held out a black and red ball, prompting her partner to cower in the corner of the room.

"_This is not going well…"_

-~-

Alena woke up with a jolt. Weird, highly-detailed dreams were not uncommon to her, but that one had been different. The one Aggron in her dream had been Ali… which meant that the other one must have been her trainer, Alletto. Alletto had been in Alena's group when they first got their starter Pokémon from Professor Birch. She hadn't seen him for months, much less dreamt about him. In fact, she almost never dreamt about other trainers. Only herself and her Pokémon…

Which meant… maybe the dream was real?

Alena shook her head and crawled out from under the bush. The past twenty-four hours had been some of the strangest in her life, and that was saying something. She had been attacked by no less than four teams of crazy, evil lunatics in her life. One of them was lead by someone who had managed to turn herself into a Flaffy. Another one was lead by someone who tried to take over the universe. As far as strangeness went, Alena was pretty much a magnet.

But this…

This was truly insane.

"_Alena!" _

Electrinz's voice brought her back to reality. The Pikachu was holding something behind his back, and when she tried to get a good look at it, he turned around so it was once again hidden.

"_There's something I want to show you!" _With no further explanation, he placed his tail on her back and began to lead her towards the center of the park.


	9. Chapter 9

Yay, an update! Also, the start of a plot, and more fluff!

Ah, fluff. :)

-~-

"_What exactly are you doing?"_ Alena asked with a mixture of annoyment and curiosity. _"If you've… you've…"_

Alena's voice petered out as she saw where Electrinz had brought her. In front of her, an enormous fountain was spewing crystal clear water while a blue light lit up the center of the spray. Surrounding the fountain, deep green hedges seemed to protect the place from the outside world. It was quiet here, with the trickling of the fountain constantly in the background.

"_How did you find this place?"_

Electrinz smiled happily, flicking his ears. _"I was looking for a map when I came across this. I never even knew it existed…"_

"_Me neither," _Alena said in wonder. _"It's beautiful…." _As she gazed up at the spray of water with eyes aglow, she felt something be placed in her paws. _"Huh?" _She looked down to see a tiny brown package. It was wrapped in crinkly brown paper and tied with a little piece of string.

"_I made these for you too," _Electrinz admitted. Alena looked back and forth from the package to him, as though unsure of what to do. _"Go ahead!" _Electrinz pushed. _"Open it."_

Alena pulled at the thick string in an attempt to undo the knot. Electrinz waited patiently as she moved around it, pulling from every angle, but to no avail. Giving up, she took the string in her mouth and sliced through it easily with her front teeth. She spit out a few bristles before unceremoniously ripping into the paper. Seconds later, she felt something soft – cloth. Carefully unwrapping the rest of the way, Alena uncovered a tiny blue shirt, small enough to fit on her now tiny body.

"_I thought you might-"_

Electrinz never got to finish. Alena grabbed him in a giant bear hug, tears forming in her eyes.

-~-

_Hundreds of miles away, at an enormous fortress in the sky…_

"_This is not good!" _

"_Not good? For Arceus's sake, Entei! This could be the end of the world as we know it!"_

"_Be quiet! It _is _the end of the world 'as we know it!'" _

The voices fell silent. Their owners stood looking over the side of the stone structure in the clouds, looking down at the earth below.

"_We have to change the humans back," _the first voice said cautiously. It was a rough voice, the kind that you would expect from a strong, loyal (if somewhat dense) person. The speaker himself was a large, shaggy beast, somewhere between a lion and a dog. His fur was a dark red, and a star-shaped crest covered most of his face. This was Entei – fire.

"_We should go out and find the ones who can fix this," _the second voice added approvingly. This one was loud and excited, as though its owner had just discovered something great. This was another beast – yellow, with stripes like a tiger and sharp, white fangs. Raikou – thunder.

"_Arceus has said that the humans must fix this on their own. They are the ones who caused it, and they must be the ones to fix it." _The final voice was decidedly more feminine than the other two. It sounded like rain, but also sounded distinctly like bells. This time, the speaker looked like a mixture between a cheetah and a wolf. Suicune – the north wind and the pure waters. _"Ho-oh has already gone out to inform those who can help of what they must do, along with Lugia and Mew. The rest of us are supposed to stay here until we are needed."_

As if in response to Suicune's words, a terrible shriek rang out. Raikou and Entei dashed off the side of the clouds, leaving Suicune no choice but to follow. Cursing her bad luck, the Water-type struggled to keep up with her faster brothers. Humans… why did they always have to cause trouble? If they weren't capturing legends or destroying the environment, then they were catching Pokémon to battle with without asking for consent. Not all Pokémon liked battling, after all. That was why Suicune was perfectly content to follow Ho-oh's orders and let the humans see how they liked not having their opposable thumbs and upright movement and funny furless bodies. If they ever changed back to normal, it would be too soon for Suicune. Thankfully for her, Arceus seemed to share the same viewpoint.

"_Arceus!" _Mew had shouted. _"The humans have unsealed that curse!"_

"_Which one?" _Arceus asked without any real concern.

"_Just look!" _Mew snapped.

Arceus closed his eyes. A few moments later, he opened them and shrugged the best a giant white goat with a wheel stuck into its side could do. _"Oh," he had said. "That one. Oh well. This should be interesting."_

And so, Mew had convinced Lugia and Ho-oh to help her in the quest to change the world back to normal. The other legends? Not so much. Most of the other legends were either fighting amongst themselves or just didn't care. Mewtwo would have helped were it not for the fact that he had broken out in a rather terrible rash – probably because, as Mew suspected, his DNA composition was closer to human than most realized. Cresselia and Darkrai had put aside their differences and were temporarily combining powers to put those who could not handle the situation to sleep – thankfully without nightmares due to the combined nature of their attacks.

Arceus himself was still relaxing at the Hall of Origin without a care in the world.

"_Humans,"_ Suicune growled. _"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself into!"_


	10. Chapter 10

"_There's something wrong." _

Electrinz stopped in his tracks as Alena suddenly spoke up. When he turned to look at her, he found her staring into space, ears flicked straight up.

"_Alena?" _Electrinz asked fearfully. _"What's the matter?"_

She didn't respond. She didn't have to. The second the words left his mouth, Electrinz became aware of a strange sensation in his back. Without knowing why, the Pikachu grabbed onto his tail and held it closely to his body.

Then they arrived.

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Almost noiselessly, three beasts jumped into the clearing, eyes almost glowing in the growing dark. Alena and Electrinz recognized them immediately – Raikou, Entei, and Suicune, the legendary beasts of Ecruteak.

"_You two…" _Suicune growled, shouldering her way past the other two. _"I remember you… you are the trainer who fought off Team Thunder before… you are well known to we legends. And you are her partner… so, even you were hit by this curse…"_

"_You know something about the curse?" _Electrinz asked.

Suicune frowned. _"Yes, and no. Both of you… you were there when it hit. You were the first two to be affected. Therefore… the two of you are part of the key to restoring the world to balance…"_

Alena did not seem too enthralled with this news. _"Us? Chosen ones? Why are there always chosen ones? Why not random ones? That would be far more interesting and far less likely to fail."_

"_Be quiet!" _Suicune suddenly snapped, the hair on the back of her neck standing straight up. _"Even though you look like a Pokémon, you still posses the foolish mannerisms of a human! The three of us are not here to converse with you, anyway. We came down to Earth because we heard screams."_ As the Pokémon spoke, she looked at Alena's tiny shirt with distaste.

"_There is a lot of chaos in the city…" _Electrinz ventured. Thankfully, Suicune did not seem to be as angry at him as she was at Alena.

"_Human foolishness once again…" _Suicune growled. _"I knew there was nothing down here to worry about! The humans can save themselves!"_

"_You are a wild Pokémon…" _Alena began.

"_What is that supposed to mean?" _Suicune snapped, whipping her head towards the girl.

Alena glared at the Water-type. _"You focus too much on the fact that humans and Pokémon are different, rather than focus on the ways that we're the same. I should know all of them – I've always been able to speak to Pokémon. Pokémon are wild, and do not live by the same rules as humans. Pokémon are meant to guide humans through life, just as people are to guide Pokémon through battles. Although we are different in spirit, there are parts of us that are the same. All of us are a part of something greater – part of the life of the entire world!"_

Suicune blinked slowly. "_You… do not speak like most humans I have encountered… you… seem… almost… to know… about…"_

Alena dismissed her with the wave of a paw. _"This isn't the first time I've been turned into a Pikachu. It's somewhat of a sport, nowadays. This doesn't matter, anyway. What's this curse about anyway? I couldn't care one way or the other, but I know a lot of other people and Pokémon are bound to hate this."_

"_This is a curse that was placed by a Pokémon from long ago," _Entei rumbled.

"_They were banished from this world by Arceus, who claimed that they were a threat to the existence of all life on this world," _Raikou chimed in.

"_The curse could not be removed by any means, so Arceus hid it away from humanity. However, Pokémon of all kinds were still aware of this curse. A Pokémon would have the knowledge of how to unleash it, but only a human could unlock it. There is a boy I believe you know. Tyler… Tyler Burn. He is the one who unleashed this curse. He and his Pokémon are behind all of this."_

"_That idiot!"_ Electrinz suddenly snapped. _"He set the whole thing up just to get back at Alena!" _The small Electric-type's face was beginning to turn red with anger.

"_I believe so," _Suicune continued. _"But the foolish boy did not seem to realize that the curse would affect the entire globe."_

Alena and Electrinz gasped. _"The entire globe?" _

Suicune nodded solemnly. _"As we speak, the people of the entire world are stuck in a Pokémon form… some of them more thoroughly than others."_

"_More thoroughly?" _Electrinz questioned. _"What's that supposed to mean?"_

"_Some of them have lost all memories of their human life. They are not aware that they were ever anything other than Pokémon. Others can remember, but they have given up entirely on human life as something pointless and trivial. A few have no doubt tried to take their lives, in the vain hope that it would return things to the way they were before…"_

Alena gave a horrified little shriek and fell backwards into Electrinz's paws. He held onto her gently as tears formed in her eyes. Suicune didn't seem to notice her terror, but Raikou and Entei shot her sympathetic looks.

"_This curse… was supposed to turn people into Pokémon. It would be whichever one they were closest to – in both meanings of the word. First, the human would transform into the Pokémon they cared for most. If that did not happen, then they would transform into whichever one was nearest to them. However, this was only the start._

"_This part of the curse would last for a week in most people. After that time period, people would begin to lose their human memories. They would wander, lost in the world, for another week. Then, new, fake memories would take their place. It would be as though humans never existed on this planet._

"_Then, finally… without humans, the world would fall into disarray… and that banished legend would gain the power to return."_

Alena clutched Electrinz's paw tightly.

"_That legendary…" _Suicune stopped as though it were too painful to go on. Entei finished for her in his booming voice.

"… _was a second Arceus."_


	11. Chapter 11

"_A second Arceus?"_ Alena asked in an unimpressed voice. "_If that's the case, then it would only be as strong as the Arceus we all know._ _All of the legendaries would easily be able to fight it off!"_

Suicune shook her head. _"It is… far stronger than Arceus, in some cases. Arceus's power comes from order – as long as things are as they are supposed to be in this world, Arceus will be the most powerful. But with things falling out of balance, he will weaken greatly."_

"_Then why isn't Arceus trying to fix this himself?" _Electrinz inquired, still clinging to Alena tightly.

Entei laughed. _"Arceus never descends from the clouds. He wishes for others to fix these problems for themselves – even if this puts him at risk of losing everything."_

Although Alena still wasn't quite confident with her newly acquired sense of hearing, she could have sworn that Suicune hissed _"Fool!"_ under her breath.

"_Arceus thinks that the humans will fix everything for them," _Raikou informed them. _"He has never had the Pokémon or humans of the world fail to fix everything for him before, so there's no reason for him to think so now."_

"_Then… maybe we should just let him rot,"_ Alena growled. _"The stupid goat is supposed to have created the world, but he can't even take responsibility for his own problems?"_ The three legendary beasts looked shocked, but Electrinz just shook his head.

"_If we don't do anything, everyone in the world will suffer. Come on Alena, do it for them, not for Arceus."_ The girl frowned, looked down at her feet, and then swiveled her head to the skies. It was nearly dark – the stars were coming out, and the moon was visible in the sky. Alena slowly lowered her head and gave the legends a stern look.

"_If I ever get the chance to fight Arceus, I'm going to kick his ass."_

With that said, she pulled Electrinz away from the beasts and started to run back towards home.

* * *

"_So, let me get this straight. This curse is going to make all humans forget that they were ever human."_

"_Correct."_

Twig took another deep swig of coffee. The Sceptile had been questioning them for the past hour, and only large quantities of his favorite beverage had managed to keep him from going into shock. Whishcast and Waggy were out on guard duty. Every so often, one of them would come up to announce that the area surrounding the treehouse was, for the most part, completely normal; forest-dwelling Pokémon would occasionally walk by and exchange greetings, while a few groups of lost travelers would stop to ask for directions. The only difference was that these travelers were walking in a huge group of Pokémon – sometimes as many as thirty – and some of them were quite obviously human. Sander was in her room, researching something in a few dusty old books, and Sy was working on some project in her room.

"_There is another Arceus,"_ Twig continued. "_Unlike our Arceus, this one is chaotic and strives for the world's unbalance, as it would make him more powerful."_

"_Correct,"_ Electrinz sighed.

"_And that if we do not find a way to reverse this curse, the entire world will be ruled by chaos and destruction."_

"_Correct,"_ Alena told him. _"However, the curse is supposed to be impossible to reverse. Also, we're some kind of chosen ones. We're the only ones who can do anything, all that jazz. So, in other words, Tyler Burn has just sent us on a wild goose chase for a cure that doesn't exist. The legendaries are going to eat me if I don't fix this, so hopefully that chaotic Arceus or whatever will eat them first."_

"_Alena!" _Twig gasped. _"That's it! Go find Tyler Burn! He'll know more about the curse!" _

Alena was halfway to the door, with visions of kicking Tyler's ass dancing in her head, when Electrinz grabbed her by the collar of her shirt. _"Knew this would be useful," _he muttered to himself. _You're training more,"_ he informed Alena.

* * *

Several dozen Poochyena later, Alena felt as though she was going to spontaneously combust from the energy flowing inside her body. She felt as though she could run faster than a car and then send a full-grown person flying with a simple push. Granted, this probably wasn't too far from the truth, but it was still a weird feeling to someone who was supposed to be a human.

"_Ready to go?" _Electrinz asked her.

"_If by ready to go, you mean ready to kick Tyler to the moon, then yes."_

"_Sounds great,"_ he told her. _"But how are we going to get back to Ever Grande?"_ Alena's face betrayed her idea. _"We are NOT going through the power lines again. Already did that twice. Two times too many. New plan."_

Alena scowled. _"I still think it was fun…"_

"_My tummy didn't. That's beside the point, though. We need a clever plan of action if we're going to stop this weird curse."_

"_All right,"_ Alena began. As she said each point, she would put up a finger. _"First, we go to Lilycove. Second, we take a boat or a Wailord or something to Ever Grande. Third, we find Tyler. Fourth, we tell him to spit up everything he knows. Fifth, we do more research. And sixth, we stop the curse and everyone's happy."_

Electrinz sighed. He sincerely doubted that such a plan would work, but Alena seemed confident enough. He nodded slowly and began to dash towards Lilycove, albeit reluctantly. He was not looking forward to seeing another big city so soon – seeing Ever Grande in such a terrible state of disarray yesterday was going to stick with him for years. Lilycove was easily four times the size of the smallish town surrounding the Pokémon League's Hoenn headquarters, and was a port town to boot. There would be a ton more people turned into Pokémon, and Electrinz wasn't sure that he wanted to risk that.

But Alena was still the leader…

As he watched her dash in front of him with renewed speed, Electrinz wondered how much longer it was until her memories began fading…


End file.
